Chat thread – Saturday 18th March

[Rob]

This is today’s chat thread.

If you have specific questions about Avios, hotels or credit cards, please ask them in the appropriate forum and not here. This thread is a good place to post interesting deals you have spotted or your general thoughts on travel and all things miles and points. Thank you for contributing.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Good evening to you all on a fine but chilly Friday evening where I’m having a beer amidst the greenery of Salesforce park.

If you’re ever in San Francisco it’s really worth a visit.

[Blair Waldorf Salad]

BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

Good evening to you all on a fine but chilly Friday evening where I’m having a beer amidst the greenery of Salesforce park.

If you’re ever in San Francisco it’s really worth a visit.

Staying in which hotel? Vagrants in the lobby/in the lifts is a real and present danger in many of them.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

To be frank the amount of homeless / vagrancy I’ve seen is far less than on previous visits.

And on those visits even before the pandemic I never came across them in lobbies or lifts.

[ZoeB]

Good morning from Melbourne on our South Australian road trip. My husband had a good St Patrick’s day as thanks to an Irish grandad he now has citizenship via the Foreign Birth Register. Took about 11 months, he used all the research & docs that had worked for his sister. Just need the passport now, and it seems l benefit when we travel together.

[strickers]

Finally admitted that there is a problem with my hearing, I need hearing aids in my mid 50s. Aside from discovering that certain well known companies are a bunch of thieves, I was at least able to earn a significant number of Avios because my local independent audiologist takes Amex! I now need to replace the phrase ‘Sorry, I didn’t hear you’ with ‘Sorry, the batteries must be flat’ when replying to Mrs S.

[Anna]

strickers wrote:

Finally admitted that there is a problem with my hearing, I need hearing aids in my mid 50s. Aside from discovering that certain well known companies are a bunch of thieves, I was at least able to earn a significant number of Avios because my local independent audiologist takes Amex! I now need to replace the phrase ‘Sorry, I didn’t hear you’ with ‘Sorry, the batteries must be flat’ when replying to Mrs S.

All that raving in the 80s and 90s!

[strickers]

Anna wrote:

strickers wrote:

Finally admitted that there is a problem with my hearing, I need hearing aids in my mid 50s. Aside from discovering that certain well known companies are a bunch of thieves, I was at least able to earn a significant number of Avios because my local independent audiologist takes Amex! I now need to replace the phrase ‘Sorry, I didn’t hear you’ with ‘Sorry, the batteries must be flat’ when replying to Mrs S.

All that raving in the 80s and 90s!

I wish! No, flying Her Majesty’s very noisy aircraft with inadequate ear protection.

[Vin]

Greetings from the IC Barcelona – here for the marathon.
This IC makes the Park Lane one look like a glorified CP…
Diamond AMB upgrade from a ‘Classic room’ to a King with view of Sagrada Familia, means you can’t go wrong on a 31k IHG points redemption with breakfast thrown in!
Perhaps the icing on the cake is free access to the excellent steam/sauna/hydrotherapy pool facilities for AMB – usually 40 euros for 45 min ( Spa treatments cost extra).

[The Savage Squirrel]

BA Flyer IHG Stayer wrote:

To be frank the amount of homeless / vagrancy I’ve seen is far less than on previous visits.

And on those visits even before the pandemic I never came across them in lobbies or lifts.

Where are you staying BAHF?

A major centre for homelessness in the Tenderloin (an area that always acted as a focal point for the city’s issues) closed in the 2nd half of 2022. I’m wondering if the problem has eased or just dispersed?

If you take Pine Street as a very rough boundary line, I found the problem severe south of that, but almost nonexistent north of it last time I went.

[JamesK]

Anyone have any good recommendations for mid range hotels in Tampa? Travelling with 2 boys (11 & 9) this summer. Will have a car Keen to goto Busch gardens and the beach. Not wedded to any hotel group. Thanks in advance…

[Anna]

strickers wrote:

Finally admitted that there is a problem with my hearing, I need hearing aids in my mid 50s. Aside from discovering that certain well known companies are a bunch of thieves, I was at least able to earn a significant number of Avios because my local independent audiologist takes Amex! I now need to replace the phrase ‘Sorry, I didn’t hear you’ with ‘Sorry, the batteries must be flat’ when replying to Mrs S.

You would hope they’d look after you better than that 😩
Coincidentally I am in Anglesey this weekend and they seem to be doing training exercises at Valley which is fun to watch!

[dougzz99]

JamesK wrote:

Anyone have any good recommendations for mid range hotels in Tampa? Travelling with 2 boys (11 & 9) this summer. Will have a car Keen to goto Busch gardens and the beach. Not wedded to any hotel group. Thanks in advance…

The Gulf beaches from Clearwater down to say St. Pete’s are lovely, but the prices for what you get are very high. Easy to find what amounts to a motel for £200/night. If you’re in Tampa proper the beaches are a drive, and the traffic is pretty horrible. There are some beaches on the bay, but no match for those on the Gulf in my opinion.
There’s a swathe of hotels to the west of the airport where SR60 starts to cross the bay, you could look at those.

[Seagull]

Greetings from a longer than expected stay in the Cathay First lounge at Heathrow T3. Should have been on the 10am BA metal flight to LAX this morning but they cancelled it at 5am this morning, 5hrs before departure. A first for me in all my travels of a long haul being cancelled between 24 to 1hr before flight.

Now on AA so let’s see how they perform!

[Lady London]

For anyone interested in financial fraud, “The Key Man” book about the Davos / Naqvi / private equity fraud available on Amazon UK today for £0.99p. B08NWLK7D4 in search box finds it.

[Swifty]

Thabks to everyone who replied to me yesterday about my amb query. You were absolutely right. I have been assertively requesting upgrades/free extra pax/water/minibar spends at hotel receptions and getting them for years by mistake.

[Richie]

Is there such a thing as a southern hemisphere equivalent to a quiet greek island in Dec/Jan?

[roams84]

Anyone know if it is possible to pay Council Tax via Amex using Paypoint? I tried today at the Post Office but the card machine got upset when I put the BAPP in and the lady said that govt don’t accept credit card payments. C

[ExpatInBerlin]

@roams84 I believe some of the Edinburgh-based contributors (Colin MacKinnon perhaps?) were discussing this the other day and had success at the Co-Op in Newington! Appreciate you may not be in Scotland… If I remember correctly there is a limit of the value per transaction, £99 rings a bell but could be talking nonsense.

[timrogers]

I reached the reduced Tier Point threshold for BA Silver by the end of December, but my BA app still shows “60 more needed” to retain Silver. Is this normal? Or is something odd going on?

[Anna]

timrogers wrote:

I reached the reduced Tier Point threshold for BA Silver by the end of December, but my BA app still shows “60 more needed” to retain Silver. Is this normal? Or is something odd going on?

As long as you’ve changed to Silver there’s no problem. Mine shows I need 50 TPs but I hit Silver last October and it’s shown as such ever since.

[SteveJ]

roams84 wrote:

Anyone know if it is possible to pay Council Tax via Amex using Paypoint? I tried today at the Post Office but the card machine got upset when I put the BAPP in and the lady said that govt don’t accept credit card payments. C

It’s not a default yes as you’ve seen. Many COOPs will accept Amex for paypoint.

[Chas]

Vin wrote:

Greetings from the IC Barcelona – here for the marathon.
This IC makes the Park Lane one look like a glorified CP…
Diamond AMB upgrade from a ‘Classic room’ to a King with view of Sagrada Familia, means you can’t go wrong on a 31k IHG points redemption with breakfast thrown in!
Perhaps the icing on the cake is free access to the excellent steam/sauna/hydrotherapy pool facilities for AMB – usually 40 euros for 45 min ( Spa treatments cost extra).

Good luck with the race – hope it comes together for you. Sounds like a great redemption – hope it’s a good omen!

[Chas]

roams84 wrote:

Anyone know if it is possible to pay Council Tax via Amex using Paypoint? I tried today at the Post Office but the card machine got upset when I put the BAPP in and the lady said that govt don’t accept credit card payments. C

Co-op is your friend here. Post Office do restrict card types for certain types of transactions, although it’s not a “government doesn’t take credit cards” thing as it’s perfectly possible to pay by credit card (incl Amex) for various government services.

[Chas]

ExpatInBerlin wrote:

@roams84 I believe some of the Edinburgh-based contributors (Colin MacKinnon perhaps?) were discussing this the other day and had success at the Co-Op in Newington! Appreciate you may not be in Scotland… If I remember correctly there is a limit of the value per transaction, £99 rings a bell but could be talking nonsense.

You’re right on the limit, but wrong on the value – it’s £200. Although if the staff know what they’re doing they can link several £200 (paypoint) transactions on their till together, and you only then make one credit card transaction for the total.