British Airways drops plastic cards for Executive Club status members

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• J says:

  13 Mar13 March 08:12

  OT: Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere this week, but I’ve been moving house and not obsessively reading everything like I normally would.

  I had an Avios RFS flight booked for 14:00 departure tomorrow. It was cancelled, and I was moved to a 17:10 flight. Yesterday I cancelled the booking assuming it would either cancel for free, or £0.50 and have Avios refunded. I assume this will still happen, but instead of being immediate I still have the message “We are currently processing a cancellation and refund for this booking. Please contact us if you wish to discuss this booking.”.

  Is this standard practice when an original flight has been cancelled, or is there any reason I should be trying to contact them?

  • John says:

    13 Mar13 March 08:22

    This sometimes happens when the original booking is modified. Just wait a bit and then call if nothing happens after 1-2 weeks. It’s not a huge amount of avios or money (unless you really need the avios back asap)

  • Anna says:

    13 Mar13 March 08:46

    Yes, I’ve had that message on the booking until the date of travel had actually passed and long after everything had been refunded – take a screenshot of it if you’re worried about not getting everything back. You should also get an email confirming the cancellation.

• Justin says:

  13 Mar13 March 08:32

  Looks like I’ll be cancelling a trip booked with my SPG Amex. If I get a refund on the card after the points have been sent over to my Bonvoy account, will they be clawed back?

  • Shoestring says:

    13 Mar13 March 08:33

    you go negative until you buy some more stuff/ earn more points

    • Peter K says:

      13 Mar13 March 10:24

      As said, goes negative. I had this on my SPG after a refund but now back to positive again.

      The only time this is a major problem is if it means they claw back your bonus and you end up many ‘000s in the negative. Best thing then is to cancel and reapply again after a short break.

      • Justin says:

        13 Mar13 March 16:40

        i was going to cancel it anway 🙂

  • Anna says:

    13 Mar13 March 08:42

    I have also been wondering, are points clawed back x 2 or x 3 now?

    • Lev441 says:

      13 Mar13 March 09:17

      Would be x 2 so i guess there’s a small silver lining there…

      • Peter K says:

        13 Mar13 March 10:19

        Clawed back x3. I had this for a booking made for May that’s now cancelled. It earned x3 but lost x3 when refunded last week.

• xcalx says:

  13 Mar13 March 09:05

  b. Boarding will be denied to any person with a severe, chronic medical condition, including those specified by the CDC. Guests of all ages will be screened prior to boarding, regarding underlying health issues that may prevent them from sailing, i.e. chronic heart, lung, liver, or kidney disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, or cancer.

  RCCL is offering a future cruise credit to be used for sailings prior to Dec 2021. This comes with quite a few restrictions.

  Would I have any joy from Insurance or Credit Card If I didn’t want to go down the Future cruise credit route. As I would be denied boarding due to having a chronic lung disease

  • Anna says:

    13 Mar13 March 10:27

    Is (b) for ever more? That’s going to preclude an awful lot of folk from going on cruises!
    I think it’s the usual story – what are the Ts & Cs of your travel policy?

    • Anna says:

      13 Mar13 March 10:28

      And how the heck are they going to screen for cancer and HIV at a cruise port?!!

      • Peter K says:

        13 Mar13 March 11:10

        A good question!

      • xcalx says:

        13 Mar13 March 13:17

        It’s not really a matter of what they can test for. It’s not falling foul of the insurance policy if something happens whilst onboard and they point to this boarding restriction to deny a claim. Would not be worth it to me to chance it. YMMV

    • xcalx says:

      13 Mar13 March 13:11

      It’s a new update as of yesterday and is in place for cruises upto 31 July 2020. . I am not happy that if I choose the future cruise credit and apply it to another cruise and then can’t take the cruise the voucher is worthless. I also have 5 other cruises booked in this period and don’t think we can fit another 2 in.

• XLi says:

  13 Mar13 March 09:42

  I phoned VA 2 days ago and I had the guy check twice and confirmed the redemption could not book a flight beyond 16th March. Which was not advised on the website.

• Aston100 says:

  13 Mar13 March 10:13

  Just to continue a conversation from yesterday.
  I need to transfer £1k a month for a few years to a relative.
  There were some kind replies about Revolut and possibly using IHG cards etc but hinting at caveats about limits pertaining to top ups.
  I’ve not had any interest in ‘playing the game’ in the past hence taken no notice. But since I now need to genuinely send this money every month, I was hoping there was a way to benefit in terms of miles/points as a bonus side effect.
  I’m happy to signup for any cards that are beneficial to this endeavour, but I am unsure what the precautions and/or limits etc are in order to get £1k across to a relatives bank account every month. Someone (TGLoyalty?) mentioned £200/£300 per week or somesuch, which suggests to me that this is a grey area and I need to be cautious?
  Someone (Polly?) mentioned using Amex to gift through Paypal, but I was under the impression that this was frowned upon if done too often.
  Any advice greatly appreciated.
  Thanks.

  • Anna says:

    13 Mar13 March 10:22

    Hi Aston, I get your point but I think it’s going to be tricky. The only failsafe solution I can think of is to withdraw cash every month via Curve linked to points earning cards (£200 each fee free per month) and pay it into your relative’s bank account, but of course this would be fiddly!

  • BJ says:

    13 Mar13 March 10:28

    If your relative has no interest in collecting points or miles themself then another possibility is that you issue them an amex supp and allow them to charge up to £1000/month to it and you settle the bill. This could be very lucrative for you, especially if it is a BAPP and you can use a 241. If a 241 is not useful then I am sure MR points would be in one or more ways being a flexible currency.

    • ash says:

      13 Mar13 March 11:06

      It wont get better than this!

      Free MR points or Avios + 241

    • Aston100 says:

      13 Mar13 March 16:06

      Thanks. That won’t work in this scenario unfortunately, but good idea anyway.
      Amex told me I can apparently go ahead and try and pay with paypal linked to my bapp, but there is a chance the system will block it. Seemed to imply that if it goes through the first time, then it should go through every month thereafter. I’m not so sure however.
      I’ll coincide this with the 6 month anniversary of the cancellation of the wife’s BAPP and apply for a new one for her and use the supplementary for this monthly transfer through paypal. Can’t imagine we’d get the signup bonus due to the 2 year rule, but I think it was you yourself who had some success with this after 6 months not too long ago?

      Thanks.

      • Secret Squirrel says:

        13 Mar13 March 17:53

        PayPal are notorious for locking accounts for too many credit card transfers to people. I think someone on here stated a couple of hundred a month max gets through.

        • Lady London says:

          13 Mar13 March 20:34

          I wouldn’t go near PayPal on this. Perhaps a way might be to talk to them first – via Contact section on their website – but that’s the only way I would ever consider involving PayPal.

  • rams1981 says:

    13 Mar13 March 10:53

    I have found IHG/Revolut still attracts interest even when I pay it off same day. HSBC with Revolut does not accrue interest using that same method.

    • Anna says:

      13 Mar13 March 11:05

      That’s wasn’t my experience last month, it’s all very odd!

      • rams1981 says:

        13 Mar13 March 11:24

        this was when they seems to allow any amounts. I put through £1500 in two batches and this month’s statement has interest of £2.50ish. Paying it off took a day to hit so that could explain the interest but numbers don’t stack. It’s also odd IHG give the points for cash transactions so i’m not going to question it…

        Separately Hilton barclays seems to be interest free topups.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          13 Mar13 March 16:12

          So still £10 up. What’s the issue.

    • iamfugly says:

      13 Mar13 March 11:48

      Not for HSBC now. Revolut worked for a while after it all kicked off but I was recently charged interest on my revolut transactions, although the MCC code being used is 4971 (which I understand is a utilities type transaction).

      • rams1981 says:

        13 Mar13 March 12:19

        were you paying off same day? As of my statement end of Feb no interest charged, points earned.

        • iamfugly says:

          14 Mar14 March 15:15

          Hi, I did not assume I needed to pay off the same day as going by the MCC code it indicated it was not being tagged as a cash advance. The MCC code for Revolut transactions has been the same for the last year without incurring an interest charge so I guessed there was no need to worry.
          I have queried why I am being charged interest on an MCC code which is clearly not a cash advance transaction so we will wait and see how they respond.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    13 Mar13 March 16:31

    Revolut is up to £700 a week backed by an MC / Visa points earning card.

    • Aston100 says:

      13 Mar13 March 18:04

      Hi, thanks for the reply. Just to be clear, are you saying I can use an ihg card to add £1k a month to Revolut (two or more top ups of £700 or less) and then pay the relative the £1k with Revolut?

      Thanks

      • Lady London says:

        13 Mar13 March 20:37

        most recommended pattern has been something like 200 200 300 (in any order) in any one week .

        • Aston100 says:

          13 Mar13 March 23:29

          Thank you. Is there likely to be interest to pay off doing those amounts with an Ihg card? Someone in this thread mentioned they had to pay interest or some charges.

        • iamfugly says:

          14 Mar14 March 15:22

          The last time I used my IHG card (about a month ago) it was attracting an interest charge for Revolut transactions. From memory for each £250 transaction, it was roughly £1.20 ish charge.
          For me, there is a £700 limit per 7 days, with each transaction no more than £250.

• Benilyn says:

  13 Mar13 March 10:27

  OT: Got my free IHG CC. Is it possible to add it to my existing paid account? Or do I need to create a new log in?

  • Grant says:

    13 Mar13 March 10:35

    New log in required unfortunately.

• BJ says:

  13 Mar13 March 10:39

  OT: Benilyn’s comment just reminded me to say thanks for all the helpful comments on my IHG card issues a few data ago. They are now all resolved including linking the card to Curve. The feedback from Creation CSA proved to be BS as readers suggested.

  • memesweeper says:

    13 Mar13 March 11:58

    🙂

    thanks for the feedback, I’m relieved that relationship lives on!

• rams1981 says:

  13 Mar13 March 11:05

  OT train bookings. I had trains booked to go to a football match which is now suspended, I assume insurance/Amex cover this?

  • BJ says:

    13 Mar13 March 11:29

    PL now suspended ; many will be in sand position so hopefully train companies offer a voucher if not a refund.

    • BJ says:

      13 Mar13 March 11:30

      *same

  • Jack says:

    14 Mar14 March 14:59

    I’m guessing by your name that this was for a trip to the home of football (AKA The Den) this weekend? Gutted it’s been called off but probably the right thing in the end.

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