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News: Biden scraps US vaccination mandate, DFDS to stop awarding Nectar points

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News in brief:

Biden drops the US vaccination mandate for air arrivals

With unfortunate timing for us, President Biden announced overnight on Sunday (UK time) that he was dropping the covid vaccination mandate from 11th May.

Anyone entering the US by air from this date will no longer need to show proof of vaccination.

This overrules the decision taken by the CDC last week – which we covered in an article yesterday, written before the change – to keep the existing rules in place, albeit with some tweaks to reflect the new bivalent vaccines.

Apologies for any confusion caused by our article yesterday. There is always a slight risk with everything we publish that the situation changes overnight before the article goes live in the early morning. The biggest problem is usually companies who promise us that an offer will go live at midnight and it doesn’t ….

DFDS dropping nectar points

DFDS to stop awarding Nectar points

Ferry company DFDS has become the latest partner to walk away from Nectar. It joins an increasingly long list – it is only a matter of time now before the only Nectar earning partners will be businesses owned by Sainsbury’s, such as Argos and Habitat.

You have been able to collect Nectar points at the rate of 2 per £1 (equivalent to a 1% return) on all online DFDS bookings. Regular bonus promotions could see this increase.

The partnership will end on 17th May. Bookings made by this date will earn points even if they are for travel afterwards.

Comments (46)

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

  • Andrew J says:

    Overnight on Monday, not Sunday – yesterday was Tuesday.

  • Billy says:

    I’ll raise you aldrington to Hove at £1.15

  • Calum says:

    Lichfield City to Lichfield Trent Valley is 55p for a child single 😀

    • Rob M says:

      Great tip

      • supergraeme says:

        And hopefully a great trip!

      • Rob says:

        Always a mistake spending under £1, because you need to spend £1 to trigger 1 base Avios on your Uber spend (someone said last week that you do earn base Avios for this spend). The bonus may well be posted by the computer looking for accounts which earned any base Avios from train bookings during the qualifying period.

    • David says:

      🙄

  • Just Nick says:

    Hi there. Just a question about Uber train tickets. Does anyone know how to book tickets into London that also have a zone 1 to 6 travel card included. I can do this on all normal train booking sites but not Uber. An example is a Maidenhead to London Underground Zone 1 to 6 travelcard. Easy on GWR site but cannot see on Uber.

    • RC says:

      Search for Maidenhead to London ensuring you specify same day travel dates for the outward and return. Select outward and return train services and then on the “Ticket Options” page select a Travelcard ticket type.

    • johnny_c-l says:

      Looks like Uber doesn’t have the option to add PlusBus either unfortunately.

    • John says:

      Travel cards will be gone in 2-3 years

      • Alex Sm says:

        We might be gone in 2-3 years but we live now and here

      • Jack says:

        I doubt it very much even TFL know how utterly ridiculous their proposals are and do not have the authority to stop it out of London

  • Ryan says:

    Be aware ScotRail are in the process of removing the ability to book Haymarket to Waverley tickets of any sort online, for fairly obvious reasons.

    • SSR BAQ says:

      Don’t worry Liverpool Lime Street to Liverpool Central one way child fare is £1.20. It’s a five minute walk but 2 minute train. Much longer to get through the barriers and down the escalators though 😉

    • Andrew. says:

      Why’s that then? It’s the quickest way to get from West End to central Edinburgh and there’s a train every 2 minutes.

      • lumma says:

        Can you book it first class and get a free can of beer?

      • Ryan says:

        It’s specifically to deal with passengers alighting at unmanned stations and purchasing a HYM-EDB single ticket which activates the barriers at the gates.

        Trying to validate the tickets of all passengers on what may be a 6/9 carriage train is almost impossible if passengers are alighting at unmanned stations.

        There are no plans to remove the (paper) tickets altogether, but it’s a small step towards stopping chancers on their commute or day out.

  • Allan says:

    £1.20 if you use LNER trains on the edinburgh hop

    • vlcnc says:

      That’s what I ended up doing as it is also an adult trip as didn’t want to lose out if a child ticket didn’t count or whatever.

  • Jan M says:

    Yes, I don’t have an Amex currently, but have used that one. And it stacked with a similar offer on my RBS card!

  • L Allen says:

    The US change is effective from 12 May as the current measures cease at the end of the day on 11 May. It’s a subtle point of difference but it was very clearly stated on the White House briefing. Telling people landing on 11 May that they don’t need vaccination paperwork is technically incorrect.

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

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